Hello everybody. I'm new here. Anyway, I managed to grab a copy of PSM3 magazine yesterday. They have an exclusive review of the game Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. Now it is worth noting, I am a huge fan. I want to share some of the information I found out in it with you. Unfortunately, I can't scan, but there is both good and bad news. Lets get the bad news out of the way.

The tests of valour are now gone. The review seems to mention co-op as a eplacement for the arena battles. MEH! I thought that replaced mission mode.

There has been people assuming that this game (because its a remake) is easier than NG2. But after what I read on upgrades for weapons, its debateable. The magazine has said, rather than upgrade all weapons with the karma, you are limited to one upgrade per shop, plus you cannot max a weapon until the second half of the game.

Now onto the bosses.

The armadillo is still there. The screenshot I have though, shows rocky mountains instead of the snowy wasteland you battle it in on the 360 version. Marbus is back in this. Even though he was supposed to die. But, you will fight him as Rachel. The statue of liberty comes to life after you beat Alexei. Its mentioned as being "obscure and cheap".

Now for the big one. There are several new screen shots. As said before, we might fight the aramadillo in a different setting. But the screenshot below it is a great hinter. It does mention the final chapters of the game and shows Ryu vs Fiend Genshin. But the costume Ryu is wearing is the Ryuken. This is defo a big hint that the Ryuken is returning in sigma 2.

I have more information if you want it. But I don't want to spoil too much. Hope you all enjoyed this info.

Anyways, I want scans of Ryuken outfit from the magazine, thats all...if there are any.

I dont like the fact you can't upgrade as many weapons as you want as long as your essence is there...but then again, there were alot of people who farms for essences in harder difficulties to be able to upgrade Dragon Sword quickly.
Unless...you can upgrade as much as you want on a Muramasa weapon checkpoint each level...maybe this is the sacrifice for being able to have all weapons for the next difficulty, ah I dont know.
I just hope it doesn't break the game in a way.

That and the game got 87% from PSM3.

PS. Welcome to the site.

Last edited by Sath on Tue Sep 01, 2009 2:36 am; edited 1 time in total

I thought the Ryuken costume was great news personally. I wasn't very happy with the costumes in NG2. Making different colours and passing them off is similar to Rachel and hairsyles. I am trying to get scans. I can type what the magazine says if you want. There is a lot more in here besides what I've said.

But I rather go for the new white outfit they have downloadable, its new and fresh, I don't want to go back to old outfits from the first one...unless its Ashtar (which there is ) or that DOA outfit which there doesn't seem to be any.

Sure type what it says, the important ones, stuff that hasent been told online...just make sure to spoiler tag them before, if it has spoilers.

If there was a image of the white outfit in a image, take a scan from that too...concept arts barely has the same visuals like the in-games ones.

This is exactly what it says. I'm going to curse them when they say they "understand" removing tests of valour.

"A far greater problem is some of the content that has been added to the story mode. The much-touted PS3-exclusive boss fight with the Statue of Liberty is a massive let down because it feels so obscure and unfair next to the game's other, better thought-out boss battles. Defeating it is a grind, and there's no obvious way to finish it off - we have no idea how we managed it."

Sounds like the Buddha complainers will enjoy the challenge.

Dirty Secrets

"No Tutorial Tutorials are for whimps. Ninja Gaiden thrusts you straight into the action, listing the controls on screen as you're perforated by Black Spider Clan ninja. Brutal.

Taking Liberties So you beat Alexei, Greater Fiend of lightning? Good for you. Fancy a rest? You can have one after you fight the Statue of Liberty. It makes sense, almost.

Two for one Hey Momiji - that mid-level boss fight was pretty tough, right? Well, that guy's back at the end of the level, and he brought his brother as back-up.

Exploding Armadillo You toppled the sky Fortress, fought Genshin, and - well done - you just killed the giant armadillo beast. Then he explodes, killing you. Aaaaaaagh!

Back 4 Good? You're close to the end. The Archfiend is in sight. All that stands between you and the final battle is....all four Greater Fiends you thought you'd killed. WHAT?"

Martial hearts

"Another worthwhile addition to the Ninja Gaiden expirience is Team Missions. These seperate arena style battles let you play online co-op using any combination of character or weapon (once you've unlocked them by playing through the main game). Essentially, they take all the great combat and enemies from the main campaign, remove the hockey plot, and let you experiment with all the cool weapons and moves you've unlocked. You can combine ninpo spells (magic) to create awesome, screen filling blasts of co-op devastation, revive each other, and compete for a share of the overall Karma (points). Check out the full review online soon.

It seems like a fair swap for the Tests of Valour, which appeared as mid-game arena battles in the 360 version, but are absent from Sigma 2. Thats a change we can understand. However, a few of the other tweaks are more puzzling. The well-documented toning down of blood seems unnecessary - there's enough decapitation, dismembering and skewering in this version to justify an 18 rating, so it seems odd Team Ninja didn't go the whole hog and have claret spurting liberally out of every wound. Come on guys - at least let us unlock it as a reward for finishing the game."

What is that? How can you understand removing these? Co-op should have replaced mission mode. Minus three points because that doesn't make sense.

Hands off

"Similary, we're not sure why the Blacksmith options have been changed, either. In the original NG2 you could level up items with hard cash (karma), but now you're granted one 'level up' per shop, and you're not allowed to max out any weapon until the second half of the game. True it encourages you to experiment with different blades, leading to richer overall gaming expirience, but it seems like an unnecessary theft of player freedom. If we want to boost our Tonfas up to the maximum level and use them to literally bust open the head of every fiend we encounter, then that should be our choice. We do appreciate the Guidance button, though, which shows you where you need to head whenever you hold R1."

Boy that was hard work. Thats abut all you need to know. Its probably going to cover half the screen.

I don't know what to say really...I still want my single player mission modes unless Chapter replay or whatever it was called is the samething.!
And the weapon upgrade info is something I do not like the sound of it.
As long as I can upgrade Dragon Sword on each muramasa statue I am fine.
But if its like one weapon upgrade for each Muramasa statue, then I will be dissapointed.

About the tutorial, NG never had any to begin with, why should this be different.
There was only these small pop up windows with various tips on beginners moves but thats it.

But I will learn to accept how these new stuff is layed out because there is nothing I can do about it and I want my NG fix

Last edited by Sath on Tue Sep 01, 2009 3:19 am; edited 1 time in total

There has been people assuming that this game (because its a remake) is easier than NG2. But after what I read on upgrades for weapons, its debateable. The magazine has said, rather than upgrade all weapons with the karma, you are limited to one upgrade per shop, plus you cannot max a weapon until the second half of the game.

Well, sounds fair to me.

There are not that much enemies on the screen like in NG2.
Without powerful weapons right in the first chapters of NG2, the game was practically unbeatable on Master Ninja mode.

Quote:

massive let down because it feels so obscure and unfair next to the game's other

These guys just dont know how to play a Ninja Gaiden game. The Buddha fight looks sooooo damn easy. And the SoL will be easy, too.....I think _________________

"rather than upgrade all weapons with the karma, you are limited to one upgrade per shop"

That is what annoys me.
What if I have enough essence from my badass gameplay to upgrade 2 weapons.

But then again, I remember in NG1, we couldn't upgrade to lvl 2 with Dragon Sword until chapter 2.
I might be wrong here, but a fresh start in chapter 1, couldn't you upgrade DS to lvl2 without farming essence but yet played good enough to be able to upgrade?

But as Female Tengu said, there are fewer enemies in NGS2 to have a fair fight, but what can change is that if it still has that NG2 IS/arrow spammings, if so, then its not fair.

Have to wait and see how it turns out.

But yeah, that Buddah boss looked easy indeed (I guess it was on Acolyte). The IGN video showed the player was spamming flying swallow...typical beginners player

People pointed out something that I did agree with in terms of the weapon bit.

It isn't so much acolyte or warrior scaring people. Its mentor and master ninja. If you remember, Rasetsu has these stupid cheap incidenary shuriken spammers. People are now scared of him if it remains the same and you can't face him with a level 3 lunar. Also someone apparently liked to use the kusari gama on the bone boss in chapter 6. But he said its useless unless its level 3.

True there are less enemies. But how will this feature be on the higher difficulties?

My point exactly...BUT, isnt the weapons suppose to carry over to other difficulties with their respective levels?
I know I read that when you for example play on Warrior, all the weapons you gained from that will carry over to Mentor...so this won't be a problem.

It will even be easier if the weapons will have the same levels you ended the game with previously.

this weapon upgrade business is another stupid thing to come out!
What the hell! I think most new NG players will stick to one weapon throughout the first run of the game, i know i did when i first played NG2 and now people are just going to be forced to play with one un-upgradable weapon and when they say
ďTrue it encourages you to experiment with different bladesĒ
Thatís not true when you know that you only got one weapon to upgrade then you might as well get comfortable with your weapon of choice and then once you have upgraded it is there any point in going back to a lower levelled weapon

And letís just say that your weapon of choice is the scythe now iv personally never used the scythe at level 2 once iv landed on the flying fortress i upgrade the scythe to max and now im going to have to get through the game with a level 2 weapons just to continue with another level 2 weapon,

I canít see any good coming from this, it just seems like a cheap way of making the game harder and that harder by fault not harder by design, and this does not make Ryu cooler

I seen what Sath has said about people harvesting but if thatís the reason for them doing this thing with the weapon upgrades wouldnít it just be better to get rid of the harvesting points, because you can still harvest essence and keep them for later

If they were going to put a limit on the upgrades they should have done something like
You have to have 500 kills on a weapon before you can upgrade it
Not you canít upgrade it because Muramasas getting too old and he doesnít feel like it any more_________________